A conventional piston aircraft engine typically includes multiple cylinder assemblies which combust a mixture of fuel and air to drive pistons within the cylinder assemblies. The pistons turn a Crank shaft, which in turn, drives a load such as an airplane propeller or blades of a helicopter.
The delivery of fuel and air for the above-described conventional piston aircraft engine is typically in the context of a constant flow mechanical system. In particular, the cylinder assemblies receive the fuel and air mixture from a carburetor, which combines the fuel and air together. The amounts of fuel and air are determined by the position of throttle linkage which is controlled by the pilot in the aircraft's cockpit.
To change the speed of the engine, the pilot manually adjusts the position of the throttle linkage. Accordingly, the pilot is capable of metering the amount of air and fuel manually in order to control operation of the above-described conventional piston aircraft engine.